Obama to expand paid sick leave

President Barack Obama will outline a plan Thursday to help states create paid leave programs and to fund Labor Department feasibility studies on paid leave.

“This is not a partisan issue; this is a family issue, and it’s an economic issue,” senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said in a conference call with reporters.

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The president will sign a memorandum to ensure that federal employees have access to at least six weeks of paid sick leave for the birth of a child. He’ll also ask Congress to pass legislation giving federal employees six more weeks of parental leave.

In addition, Obama will urge Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, which the administration first endorsed in 2009, when it was introduced by then-Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro. The bill, which would allow workers in businesses with 15 or more employees to earn up to seven paid sick days each year, was conceived as a followup to the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, which provided eligible workers with 12 weeks of unpaid time off.

“Employers often choose to make FMLA leave unpaid, and frankly, many Americans can’t afford to lose [their] income by taking advantage of this leave,” Jarrett said.

The president, Jarrett said, intends to propose $2.2 billion to support state efforts to establish paid leave programs. The Labor Department will also provide $1 million in existing funds to help state and local municipalities conduct feasibility studies on how to implement paid leave.

The White House’s actions capitalize on the recent trend of state and local governments to pass workplace regulations on matters like minimum wage and paid leave even as such measures languish in Congress.

In the November elections, ballot measures on sick leave passed in Massachusetts; Trenton and Montclair in N.J.; and Oakland, Calif. There are now three states — Massachusetts, California and Connecticut — and 16 cities that offer some form of paid sick leave. There are currently 43 million private-sector workers in the U.S. who do not have paid leave.

The White House emphasized the economic benefits of paid leave. Businesses with paid leave policies have seen greater productivity and higher corporate profits, Betsey Stevenson, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, said on the press call.